new lysol power & free. powerful cleaning that's family friendly. another step forward in our mission for health. this morning on "early today," politics and policy. mitt romney sharpens his foreign policy attacks as the president prepares to step onto the world stage. celeste steel stunner. new images capture an awesome display of the northern lights. and talk about find of a lifetime. an artwork purased at a thrift store fechs tens of thousands at an artwork purased at a thrift store fechs tens of thousands at auction. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. i'm lynn berry. and today we begin with foreign affairs. president obama will take a brief diplomatic detour from his

campaign front lines to address the simmering crises in iran, syria, and the broader muslim world before the united nations general assembly. nbc's steve handelsman reports from washington. president obama headed to new york with critics assailing his priorities. he'll address the united nations but make another campaign appearance on "the view" instead of meeting one on one with world leaders. >> there are all kinds of things i want to do in the second term. >> reporter: no meetings scheduled with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu who's angered democrats by demanding a tougher obama stance on iran. on "60 minutes" he seemed to talk about netanyahu. >> anything i do is right for the american people and i am going to block out any noise that's out there. >> reporter: the white house claims what the present meant was. >> his objective is to take every step possible to enhance

israel's security. >> reporter: mr. obama had downplayed anti-american rioting. >> i was pretty certain and continue to be pretty certain that there are going to be bumps in the road. >> reporter: but after ben zbaz zi, the u.s. ambassador assassinated, syria out of control, mitt romney campaigning in colorado blames barack obama. >> these are not bumps in the road, these are human lives, these are developments we do not want to see. this is time for a president who will shape events in the middle east. >> reporter: in our presidential election, romney is trailing in colorado and in ohio. >> look, we're going to win. there's no question in my mind, we're going to win. >> reporter: six weeks to go. one reason president obama is limiting diplomatic time at the u.n. i'm steve handlesman, nbc news, washington. well, elsewhere in politics, missouri senate candidate todd akin again says he will stay in

the race despite his con throw verse y'all comments on rape last month. today is the deadline to get a court order to drop out of the race. after last month's interview, he lost most republican campaign money, but now a conservative fundraising pac is seriously considering whether to come to akin's aid because he may have a legitimate chance to beat claire mccaskill. newly released numbers shows the high school class of 2012 has s.a.t. reading scores that hit a four decade low. it focuses on reading, sentence structure and vocabulary. they've been gradually declining for years. a majority of test takers, 57%, didn't score high enough to have success in college. many attribute it to a record number of students taking the test including 1/4 from low income backgrounds. just a reminder for you, be sure to tune into coverage of

education nation coverage on american schools. that's all this week across the platforms of nbc news. you can get involved in the discussion by visiting education nation.com. well, now here's a look at some other stories making news early today in america. in new york, they are fast footed thieves, at least they are now. surveillance video shows what police say are five teenagers robbing a sneaker store. at least one of the kids threatened the clerk at gun point. in massachusetts it was truck versus truck versus apartment building. witnesses say the driver of a green pickup was speeding when he slammed into another pickup which was parked with no one inside ramming it into the apartments. the driver of the first truck was hospitalized. in san francisco, one amazing sight played host to another. hump back whales made a rare visit near the golden gate bridge. whale watchers usually have to travel dozens of miles out to sea to catch the migration.

this time they were a mere quarter mile outside san francisco bay. take a look at this painting, it was bought by an unemployed artist for $9.99. she was planning to use it as a canvass for her own paintings of cats, but a friend urged her to do a little research. it turns out, the painting called vertical diamonds, was a keeper. it sold at auction for nearly $35,000. never happens to me. now for a look at your national and regional weather, could it be true? is it real? nbc meteorologist bill karins who hasn't been around for a little while is back. >> did you miss me? >> reunited. >> did you miss me as much as i missed you? >> of course i did. our daily update and phone calls, what are you doing now? what are you doing now? that held me off for a little while. it is good to see you, bill. good morning. >> you haven't seen me since i walked in the door. >> that's true. >> good morning. yesterday we talked about the

cold chilly air in the great lakes. now that's in northern portions of new england. we have warm air trying to surge back into the middle of the country. usually this time of year you get the little battles taking place between the cool air arriving for the fall and the hot summer air in the south. you'll get thunderstorms breaking out. that's the case this morning. north of missouri and columbia and st. louis. a lot of lightening with the storms as well. sending a couple of dogs under the bed. lightening strike counter, up to 5,000 lightening strikes over the last hour. st. louis, much is into the north side of town and crossing into illinois. springfield, quincy is the worst early morning drive. as far as interstate 70, you still have a chance of storms but the majority looks like it will stay to your north. as far as rainfall total, the potential if you get thunderstorms there will be more, but you have a wide area of a half an inch to an inch of rain. that will be the rest of today

for tomorrow. the forecast today, dry day today but clouds increasing. 70s from boston downwards to the east coast. very hot in texas. storms from kansas city to st. louis. that's a look at your national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. today around cleveland, a slight chance of shower or storm for you too. a lot of that will be to the south. central ohio and southern ohio the best chance for that rain. still very warm in texas, oklahoma, arizona. still all in the 90s. nice, quiet weather week for me. trying to ease back. >> we worked on that. coming up, caterpillar crawls, google finds a new high and america's surprisingly favorite salty snack. we may disagree on this one. your early morning business headlines are ahead. plus, a south korean youtube sensation dances his way into the record books. coming up, a big loss for the jets and you make the call. interception or touchdown? you're watching "early today."

good morning and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry, and here are some of your top headlines this morning. the associated press reports an analysis of new satellite images shows north korea has stopped construction of a new launch pad for tests of intercontinental range rockets. the work may have been delayed by heavy summer rains, but experts say the north has not mastered the technology to shrink a nuclear weapon to fit on a long range missile. in southern california firefighters found a body in a home destroyed by the wild fire. officials say the elderly man ignored evacuation orders. two staff sergeants are going to be court martialed for urinating on the bodies of taliban fighters last year. three other marines received administrative punishment last

month. hospitals around the country are being given a warning not to try to cheat the government through the use of computerized records technology. the justice department and health and human services are focusing on what's called upcoding or raising the severity of a patient's condition to get more money. and it is peak viewing time for a beautiful sight, the northern lights. these spectacular photographs were taken over the past couple of days in yellow knife, canada. doesn't get much better than that and now here's an early look at how wall street's going to kick off the day. the dow closed at 13,558 after falling 20 points yesterday. the s&p was down three. the nasdaq lost 19. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei gained 22 points while in hong kong the hang seng was up 3. gloomy data out of europe and another corporate caution flag. stalled markets monday. minutes before the closing bell

caterpillar cut its earnings forecasts for 2013 citing weakness in the world economy. europe's biggest economy is still struggling dammend the mood. it fell for a fifth straight month in september. a critical barons article coupled with unconfirmed reports of a privacy breach dragged facebook down 9%. apple dipped despite selling 5 million iphone 5s last weekend which was more than the iphone 4s but apparently not as many as some expected. on the up side, google notched a new high on an analyst upgrade. ahead of fresh housing data this week home builder lenar posted surprisingly high earnings. discover is refunding $2.5 million to 3.5 million customers after a federal investigation showed it tricked people to sign up for services like payment

protection plans. toys"r"us is hiring 35,000 seasonal people this year. that's up from the 40,000 people it hired. a recall of va little see yeah peanut butter is up. so far only trader joe's peanut butter has been linked to salmonella. an industry trade group predicts a world shortage of pork and bacon next year. it's now unavoidable due to this year's drought. a new poll shows ritz crackers are america's new favorite salty snack. lays potato chips are second and dor receipt tows are third. the tigers pounce, the yanks extend their lead and a top defensive back is out for the season. plus, one very controversial kaurl could be the last straw

for football's replacement revs. your early morning headlines are coming up. that may have been the worst call ever. your early morning forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." and in sports, a truly

bizarre twist in the final play of monday night's match-up between seattle and green bay fell in the seahawks favor. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning. right off the top, you make the call. wrapping up a wild weekend in the nfl. here's the final play of last night's green bay/seattle game. seahawks down 12-7. seattle last chance. if they score a touchdown, they win the game. it appeared the packers jennings came down with it. the seahawks golden tate was there and tried to wrestle the ball away. the officials all over it. one signaled touchdown, the other signaled stop the clock. you make the call, interception or touchdown. if you called it an interception, you are wrong. they reviewed it and called it a touchdown. a controversial ending that will be talked about all week, if not all year. seattle wins a wild one 14-12. in other news darrelle revis

done for the year. he tore the acl in his left knee on sunday. baseball will be a sprint to the finish in the a.l. east. the yankees continue to win. curtis granderson belted his 40th homer of the year. yanks beat the twins 6-3. they won 9-10. the pesky orioles aren't going away. look closely. lewis a yell la made the catch of the game in the bull pen and snagd it with his hand. they're a game and a half back of the yanks. tigers are playing catchup. prince fielder left the yard. tigers win it 6-2. despite the win they couldn't make up any ground on the first place sox. adam dunn strikes out and he hits home runs. last night he did both. two home runs and two strikeouts. white sox held on to beat the indians 5-4. they lead the central by a game. the sacks fall for adrian

belt beltre. a walk off single. the rangers win it 5-4. that's an early look at your sports today. i'm fred reeg begin. singer chris brown dodges a bullet. plus we'll tell you about a temporary truce in the age old battle between cats and dogs. your early morning headlines are straight ahead.

welcome back on this tuesday morning. worst weather in the country right now is heading from northern portions of missouri to central illinois. a lot of heavy rain and thunderstorms with a ton of lightening strikes too. if you're traveling from quincy to springfield, probably one of the worst drives out there in the nation. as far as the forecast goes, we will watch a dry, beautiful day from the great lakes to the northeast. rain will be arriving as we go throughout the day for you. it doesn't look like that's going to change. we should be in the 90s through texas through the upcoming weekend. if you're watching us in utica, new york, watch gilded mummies. shadow of the sphinx. bill, thanks so much. here's an early look at today's headlines in entertainment. singer chris brown -- >> i want to interrupt you. >> so it begins. he was in an l.a. courtroom yesterday for a standard probation hearing but it wound up being anything but.

brown got lectured by the judge after he tested positive for marijuana use. though she said the test was not a condition for probation, a november hearing has been set to decide whether he violated his probation stemming from the 2009 beating of then girlfriend rihanna on other matters. the judge said community service logs from brown's home state of virginia were somewhat cryptic. prosecutors in los angeles say two people have pleaded no contest to charges of trying to extort $5 million from stevie wonder for a salacious video. both were sentenced to time served. and according to guinness world records that ganga style -- >> i've never seen this. >> it was the most liked video on youtube. you will be logging on to watch it. there have been over 2.6 million thumbs up on this. it easily surpassed the lmfao party rock anthem 1.5 million. this guy right there is also

the number one song in 31 countries on the itunes chart. i just discovered it yesterday so please don't feel uncool. actually, feel uncool. >> i'm looking it up. ignore me. this comes to us from jordan, minnesota, where a kit ten has found an unlikely new foster mom. they are now so close that the dog is nursing the cat, even producing its own milk. the stray feline was found in a family barn apparently just days old. when it was brought inside it was cold and me ouing which drew the attention of the dog named mittens who then took it upon herself to care for the kitten named bootsy. >> mittens is the name of my cat. >> it's always about you. the animal's owner calls the whole thing a miracle. i'm lynn berry. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

>> you are watching wbal 11 news. live. local. late-breaking. 11 news today at 5:00 a.m. >> off to a chilly but quiet start on this tuesday morning. temperatures managed to dig into the mid 40's in some locations. 41 in frederick. 56 downtown. the forecast for today -- a nice, mao afternoon with a mixture of sunshine and a few clouds. high temperature near 74. back in a few minutes. >> the time is 4:56. coming up, a shocks in seattle.

>> a wild finish to monday night football. what went wrong. >> train riders could soon cut their commute in half. >> checking on the area roads. we will let you know of any problem spots hqhqhqhqhqhqhqhqhq

>> you are watching wbal 11 news. live. local. late-breaking. this is 11 news today at 5:00 a.m. >> good morning. i'm mindy basara. >> stan stovall. tickets for joining us. >> below 50 degrees right now. down to the. 40's in some of the northwest suburbs. be prepared for that when you step out. it will get warmer this afternoon. afternoon.